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When he arrived in Denver in August of 2010, Masai Ujiri was given a one-item mandate — figure out what to do with Carmelo Anthony.

The Nuggets wanted their only star convinced to stay. Ujiri quickly realized Anthony was not in the mood to be convinced.

Though the power in these sorts of showdowns is presumed to be with the player, Ujiri turned the model on its head. His cunning strategy was to do nothing. He didn’t put the brakes on — he put the car in ‘Park.’

In Colorado, his calculated approach was perceived as freezing up under pressure. He was steadily ripped as a novice and a fool. In the end, he was proven right. He sat and stared long enough. Melo and the Knicks were the ones left blinking.

Eventually, the question dangling over Denver migrated over to the thought bubble above New York’s head — why the hell haven’t you closed this deal? And New York . . . well, ‘caved’ is too strong a word. They ended up surrendering real value for a player who, when he was finally traded in February, 2011, had only two months remaining on his contract.

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So — caved.

It was Kennedy-esque brinksmanship, and it made Ujiri a hero in Denver.

They thought turning one sort of contender into a different sort would be satisfaction enough for a rookie member of the NBA’s management class. They didn’t understand how capitalism works. In winning that battle with New York and Melo, Ujiri set the table for a ticker-tape parade that only began a few hours ago.

He dragged this out just long enough to embarrass MLSE, who had gone over the top in dangling a salary in the reported $3 million (U.S.) a year range.

Ujiri could not extract anything close to that from Denver, and so finally succumbed.

He had a hill to climb in Colorado; he exchanges it for a canyon wall in Toronto. All this proves is that, in the end, all of us will bow down before filthy lucre. It’s the only dependable thing in sport, and in life generally.

For the next few days, we’ll all hold hands together and dream. We’ll imagine that this team isn’t really trapped in a roster dead-end. We’ll pretend that the trees Bryan Colangelo saw, Ujiri will properly identify as a forest.

For now, we’ll accept the magical proposition of every change on every team in history — this time, it’ll be different.

We’ll kid ourselves that all this can be fixed easily.

One thing is going to be easy — amnestying Kleiza. Like hiring Ujiri, all that is is a function of money. Everything else is hard.

How are you going to get rid of Bargnani?

Who is your backup point guard?

Given that there is only one year remaining on Kyle Lowry’s deal, and the fact he has proven nothing thus far, who’s your starting point guard?

In fact, who’s your everything minus the wings? You’ve got nothing but wings. Push the team bus off a cliff and it ought to be able to fly.

Even still, if DeMar DeRozan comes back and still can’t shoot the three, what then?

If Rudy Gay comes back and it turns out it wasn’t his eyes after all, what then?

Do you want the up-tempo sort of team you had in Denver?

Does coach Dwane Casey fit (given his good relationship with Ujiri, we presume it will, as it should)?

Had the Raptors stayed the course, there were a few sure things — that Jonas Valanciunas would be allowed to continue developing slowly, that Aaron Gray would return to spell him, that Amir Johnson would be allowed to continue on as the emotional cornerstone in the middle.

That’s all up in the air now.

In going out of its way to so publicly lure Ujiri, and then in overpaying him to come here, the Raptors have set themselves a new standard.

If they intended to continue on the steady path, they would have stuck with Colangelo. And few people would have kicked.

A far worse idea would be replacing him, and thinking that’s enough to fool everyone. Change in the management offices won’t satisfy a single fan. Doing so elicits a more dangerous reaction. It excites them.

And should that excitement come to nothing on the court, the backlash against this team will be . . . actually, backlashes aren’t what they should worry about anymore. They’ve muscled through so many backlashes everyone involved needs a neck brace. What they need to start worrying about is apathy.

There have been too many failures.

Masai Ujiri’s last job came with a short to-do list. This one is just as compact — completely remake this club into a contender, and do it now.

Denver hired him to rescue a deal. Toronto is hiring him to rescue a franchise.

As before, he’ll be afforded some time. As before, he has one chance. Given the failures of those who’ve gone before, we’ll forego wishing him luck. If it was down to luck, this team would’ve fluked its way into decency at some point.

Rather than luck, we’ll wish him to be as good as he seems. If Ujiri manages it in this performance sinkhole, he’ll never have to prove anything again.

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